Cecotto storms to feature race victory Johnny Cecotto's gamble to start on slicks when all of his rivals (other than Stéphane Richelmi) started on wet tires paid off in spades with a dominant victory in this afternoon's feature race in Hockenheim, allowing the Venezuelan to pick his strategy rather than have it dictated to him to roll out an easy winner ahead of Fabio Leimer and Richelmi.
With a heavy shower ahead of the race Cecotto and Richelmi were the only drivers willing to throw the dice (from P17 and P22 respectively), hanging on as best they could when the lights went out and the spray went up. At the front poleman Giedo van der Garde had a decent start to lead out his rivals, with Nigel Melker mugging Leimer for P2 at turn 4: the pair soon gobbled up the Caterham driver as Fabio Onidi sliced his way past Felipe Nasr to cross the line behind them.
Leimer pushed Melker all over the circuit for a few laps, inevitably taking the lead on lap 5 just as a dry line was forming, allowing Cecotto to set the fastest lap thus far: it was all the incentive the field needed, with almost everyone storming into the pits next time by to switch to dries themselves, handing Cecotto and Richelmi a huge advantage in the process.
The pitstops gave Cecotto a 28 second lead over Leimer, who headed the now-pitted van der Garde, Nasr, Melker, Luiz Razia, James Calado, Stefano Coletti, Marcus Ericsson and Davide Valsecchi as the sun shone down. The Swedish driver was desperate to find a way past his Monegasque rival and eventually got inside and through at the hairpin with Valsecchi trying to follow: the Italian was less fortunate, and damaged the front of his car on Coletti's right rear tire.
The big question now was when would Cecotto (who stretched to a 10 second lead over Richelmi) pit, and how long would it take? Richelmi was in on lap 23 and emerged behind Nasr, while the Venezuelan came in one lap later and returned easily in the lead, much to the chagrin of Leimer.
With fresher tires the closing laps were a simple job to tick off for Cecotto, who rolled across the line almost 10 seconds ahead of Leimer. Richelmi did a great job to dispatch Nasr for a popular podium finish, with van der Garde clearly struggling to hold on as he eventually crossing the line in fifth. His countryman Melker was the next man through, with Razia and Calado right on his tail, while a last lap battle between Ericsson and Esteban Gutiérrez saw the pair run deep at the hairpin, allowing Tom Dillmann a clean line through for ninth and the Mexican snapping up the final points position
Razia stretched out his lead in the championship to 171 points over Valsecchi on 159, with Gutiérrez on 123 points ahead of van der Garde (107), Calado (99), Chilton (95), Leimer (87) and Cecotto (76), and with the Brazilian on the front row of tomorrow's sprint race behind poleman Calado, there are sure to be more changes in the title fight to come.
Hockenheim – Feature Race
Pos
Driver
Team
1.
Johnny Cecotto
Barwa Addax Team
2.
Fabio Leimer
Racing Engineering
3.
Stéphane Richelmi
Trident Racing
4.
Felipe Nasr
DAMS
5.
Giedo van der Garde
Caterham Racing
6.
Nigel Melker
Ocean Racing Technology
7.
Luiz Razia
Arden International
8.
James Calado
Lotus GP
9.
Tom Dillmann
Rapax
10.
Esteban Gutiérrez
Lotus GP
11.
Marcus Ericsson
iSport International
12.
Josef Kral
Barwa Addax Team
13.
Davide Valsecchi
DAMS
14.
Max Chilton
Carlin
15.
Nathanael Berthon
Racing Engineering
16.
Simon Trummer
Arden International
17.
Rio Haryanto
Carlin
18.
Jolyon Palmer
iSport International
19.
Fabio Onidi
Scuderia Coloni
20.
Stefano Coletti
Scuderia Coloni
21.
Julian Leal
Trident Racing
22.
Sergio Canamasas
Venezuela GP Lazarus
23.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Caterham Racing
24.
Giancarlo Serenelli
Venezuela GP Lazarus
DNF
Victor Guerin
Ocean Racing Technology
DNF
Ricardo Teixeira
Rapax
Fastest Lap : Fabio Onidi (Scuderia Coloni) – 1:25.254 on lap 31
Copyright 1999-2013 | AutoRacing1 is an
independent internet online publication and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed
by IndyCar, NASCAR, FIA, Sprint, or any other series sponsor.
This material may not be published, broadcast, or redistributed without
permission.
